Zubat Line/B2W2
Zubat can only be found with the Castelia Sewers as a reasonably common encounter. Golbat is located within all floors in Celestial Tower, as a rare encounter (more likely the higher up in the tower you are) and the Strange House as an uncommon encounter prior to the postgame, where both it and Crobat can be located within the Dreamyard. The plague of caves of old, ironically the Zubat line is nowhere near as abundant as you would expect it to be in Unova. However slight tweaks to its movepool means that even from the get go, the line best known for sucking until it reaches the final stage is capable of pulling its weight throughout the game. Just watch out for the mass of Rock-type coverage moves that its main prey will have and let the bat demonstrate why it is such a popular Pokémon in Nuzlockes. Important Matchups - Challenge Mode = * Gym #3 - Burgh (Castelia City, Bug-type): Make sure you have Golbat at this point, as Leavanny will do major damage to Zubat. Wing Attack Karrablast and Shelmet, as they shouldn't be any problem and go down in one hit. Watch out for Dwebble. This is tricky, even with Crobat. Dwebble has high Defense, plus Rock Blast. Avoid this one. Then there's his ace, Leavanny. Although it has GrassWhistle, Golbat should normally be able to outspeed, but don't worry if it doesn't. Leavanny's only way of damaging Golbat is through Aerial Ace, which a Golbat can take, especially with Eviolite on. Meanwhile, Wing Attack does OHKO Leavanny. If you already have Crobat, then have fun by destroying Karrablast, Shelmet and Leavanny. * Colress (Route 4): Let's be honest, as much as it would be cool to throw a friendship evolution at one of the three major figures of Team Plasma, nothing any of the Zubat line learns around this point can scratch either of his Steel-types with Magnemite threatening you with SonicBoom and ThunderShock. Although you can troll them with Confuse Ray, it’s better to let another Pokémon handle this fight unless you have no other options. * Gym #4 - Elesa (Nimbasa City, Electric-type): You could try beating the Joltik with Wing Attack or Venoshock. However, if it doesn't OHKO, chances are it will use Thunder Wave, and then proceed to use Volt Switch to put you in a really bad matchup. Even with Eviolite, Golbat gets hit hard by Volt Switch from Emolga and Flaaffy. If you have a Golbat with exceptionally high Special Defense AND an Eviolite, then you could maybe try if you're overleveled and in a dangerous situation. Maybe. Venoshock does decent damage, but so does Volt Switch. Meanwhile Flaaffy can use Thunder Wave to cripple Golbat's best stat, namely Speed. Meanwhile, Zebstrika holds a Sitrus Berry. Never ever ever battle Zebstrika with your Golbat. If you have Crobat at this point, then still stay far away. * Rood (Driftveil City): Herdier's Take Down shouldn't hit too hard, and you can take it out with Wing Attack, Venoshock or Air Cutter. Watch out for the possible critical hit, though, and don't be afraid to heal if necessary. Stay away from Swoobat for obvious reasons. * Gym #5 - Clay (Driftveil City, Ground-type): While you are immune to Bulldoze, all three of Clay's Pokémon are still capable of fighting back. Krokorok seems to be an easy target; however, Intimidate ensures that you will not be OHKO/2HKOing it with Acrobatics with it, dealing decent damage in response with STAB Crunch. Excadrill resists or is immune to every attack you could have at this point, hits like a truck and knows Rock Slide. Stay away at all costs. Sandslash is also rather bulky but unlike Excadrill, this one relies on Crush Claw and Rock Slide to do damage. You can attempt to take this, but make sure you haven't been Intimidated prior and be careful about Rock Slide. It's preferred to let another 'mon handle Sandslash. Last up, there's Onix. Partly a Rock-type. Nope. * Hugh (Pokémon World Tournament): Pignite, Servine and Simisage will all go down to Acrobatics. The others may take one hit however the main threats are Dewott and the other two monkeys, particularly Simipour. Torrent boosted STAB Water Pulses from Dewott will hurt and Simipour's Scalds can cripple Crobat with a burn, but in reality this fight is nothing too difficult. * Cheren (Pokémon World Tournament, Normal-type): Crobat outspeeds all three of his Pokémon and Stoutland still has Tackle for a STAB move, although Intimidate can be annoying and the canine can get very dangerous if you let it get a few Work Ups off. Cinccino is hard walled by Crobat as it only has Bullet Seed and Wake-up Slap as offensive moves. Although Sing (and Watchog's Hypnosis/Confuse Ray) can be annoying, one prescription of Acrobatics should be enough to clear the floor with this round. * Colress (Pokémon World Tournament): Magneton and Klink still laugh at your attempts to beat them with Crobat's unfitted for Steel-types current movepool. To make matters worse, Magneton has both STAB super effective ThunderShock, which hits rather hard despite its low base power, and the parafusion combo to slow you down. Klink is less powerful, so you can slowly whittle it down; it will take a while so to save time, send something else after it. Elgyem may have the type advantage and STAB Psybeam but it’s incredibly frail and you have Bite, this should not be a problem. * Gym #6 - Skyla (Mistralton City, Flying-type): This is your call to stay away. First up, there are Swoobat and Sigilyph. They both pack the super effective STAB Psychic. You are able to take one of those at best, while outspeeding and 2HKO'ing them with Acrobatics, but if Psychic is a critical hit, your Crobat is a goner. Next up, there's Skarmory, who absolutely walls everything you can throw at it, period. The last 'mon is Swanna. FeatherDance are Roost cripple your chances to defeat it, and meanwhile it can hit hard with Surf or Air Slash. Bring an Electric-type for this one. * Hugh (Undella Town): Serperior and Simisage both get annihilated by Acrobatic/Cross Poison (insert Flying/Poison move here) with Crobat’s blistering speed being one of the few Pokémon capable of outpacing Serperior in the story. Emboar can do a ton of damage through Heat Crash but your Acrobatics also deals a hefty amount back, and you should be faster, so that won't be a problem. The others lack much that can deal decent damage to you, particularly Samurott, who only has Aqua Jet. The other monkeys can attempt to hit you with Scald and Flame Burst and Unfezant can abuse its item and ability in order to smash you with crit Air Slash spam. It’s still better to send Pokémon that can hit this lot for more than neutral damage to speed things up, though if in a pinch, Crobat should fare decently regardless. * Zinzolin (Lacunosa Town, tag battle with Hugh): While both Sneasel and Crygonal have terrible physical defence and you should outpace both of them, they still have STAB SE moves on the off chance one of them (most likely Sneasel) survives Acrobatics. His partner has a Golbat, which should not be beating Crobat under logical circumstances, and Garbodor is relying on Take Down to deal any damage to you. So yeah, this is not a problem. * Gym #7 - Drayden (Opelucid City, Dragon-type): While all of his Pokémon depend on the reduced priority Dragon Tail for STAB and most of Druddigon and Flygon’s coverage moves/other STAB are either resisted by Crobat or it is outright immune to it, moves like Crunch, or Rock Slide in Flygon's case, from these two will leave a mark as neither are going to be OHKO’d by Acrobatics. Altaria loves to set up Cotton Guards to boost its Defense to insane levels. Meanwhile, Sing can put you to sleep, and it strikes hard with Dragon Pulse. Don't fight it. Haxorus likes to use Dragon Dance and will outspeed you after two, possibly even just one. At this point it also has the equivalent to a Swords Dance and is about to sweep your team. It will likely crush you with Slash (just to add critical overkill) or attempt Dragon Tail. You can attempt to remove it as it sets up, with Dragon Tail providing an extra turn if needed to finish the job. However, the risk of axe face cleaving through Crobat (and the rest of the team) is enough to discourage using it. If you already have Haze, however, disregard the previous considerations and spam it against Haxorus: sooner or later, it will either give up boosting its stats or finish its PP (Dragon Dance has 20 PP, versus Haze's 30). Then, you can take it down with Acrobatics. * Zinzolin (Opelucid City): There’s no way that the Crygonals should outspeed Crobat if it is not underleveled. Add their terrible physical defence to you having a STAB base 110 power move and both of these two should be down before they even get the chance to consider using Ice Beam. Weavile will be getting an Ice Shard off on you, and it will hurt; you should be able to take it and flatten this one in response, but don't risk it if you have a better counter. * Shadow (Opelucid City): Absol is not much of an issue as Acrobatics will likely OHKO it; however, if it gets a critical Night Slash, Crobat is going to suffer. The Pawniards wall every move you will have access to at this point and even if they are unevolved, they still hit reasonably hard. * Gym #8 - Marlon (Humilau City, Water-type): Carracosta is a bulky Rock-type, which for some reason doesn’t have Rock Slide or Stone Edge. Instead, it knows Smack Down and that will not be one-shotting you without Shell Smash. Speaking of which, it also has Sturdy, meaning it will get the boosts making the aforementioned Smack Down, Crunch and gym TM Scald rather dangerous, if not for the fact Giga Drain is accessible here and Crobat will still outspeed Carracosta, even at +2. It will also get Marlon to waste a Hyper Potion or two before it falls to its massive Grass weakness. Wailord has Scald to burn you with, and the ever-annoying Rollout; the threat presented by this is self-explanatory, huge amounts of hit points and Amnesia to prevent you mauling it with Giga Drain. However, Acrobatics will still do a chunk of damage and it will take a while before Rollout becomes threatening. It is still recommended to use an actual Grass-type or an Electric one just to tear through this colossus and its teammates. Jellicent is simply annoying, having Scald to burn you, Recover and a Sitrus Berry, Cursed Body to lock down one of your moves and Ominous Wind to fish for stat boosts. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate, tag battle with Hugh): Again, the twin Crygonal should not get the chance to attack you due to Acrobatics. Weavile will again go for the Ice Shard before getting thrown around by Acrobatics. In the double battle, all three starters will help in taking down the Grunt’s Pokémon, although Watchog and Liepard are not that threatening and Scolipede falls to Acrobatics. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate): This time there's no Grunt saving Zinzolin's Pokémon. Proceed to annihilate them with Acrobatics. * Colress (Plasma Frigate): Everything here has some way to brutally murder Crobat. Magneton and Magnezone carry Volt Switch and Discharge in order to fry you and Thunder Wave to cripple Crobat’s best asset. Magnezone also has Explosion, which while not as fatal as in previous generations, still will off Crobat with a critical hit. Metang laughs at anything bar Heat Wave, but it will be able to take one before flattening you with STAB SE Zen Headbutt in retaliation; worse even if Heat Wave misses. Klinklang charges along; setting up with Shift Gear in order to quickly grind you down with Wild Charge. Beheeyem does have Psychic but it is rather slow and frail. It’s still best to send something not weak to Psychic moves after this thing. * Shadow battle #1 (Plasma Frigate): Stay away from the Pawniard, all of them, unless you have Heat Wave. They may not be fully evolved, or carry all too powerful attacks, but there's still no way you can hit these things. Absol is a possibility, as X-Scissor or Acrobatics will do massive damage to it. Don't use Fly; you just don't want it to set up a Swords Dance while you're in the air. * Shadow battle #2 (Plasma Frigate): More Pawniard to avoid or fry. Accelgor gets outsped and OHKO'd by Acrobatics. * Shadow battle #3 (Plasma Frigate): Even more Pawniard, go Heat Wave or go home. Then there's Banette. It packs Will-O-Wisp to cripple Crobat's physical power, but can also use the super effective Psychic, and use the priority move Sucker Punch. Despite all of this, Crobat can take it out with two Acrobatics. Even a critical Psychic won't OHKO Crobat, but in case it does crit, switch out immediately. You don't want Sucker Punch to finish the job. * Black/White Kyurem (Giant Chasm): NO. Crobat is not 2HKOing the death machines that are the Kyurem forms and both will easily annihilate you with either Freeze Shock/Fusion Bolt or Ice Burn respectively. If it's weak to Ice, the general rule is to keep it as far away as possible from Kyurem and Crobat’s no exception. * Ghetsis (Giant Chasm): Cofagrigus is stupidly bulky on both sides of the spectrum and has Psychic to hit you with. However its main trick, Toxic stalling fails royally meaning that you can slowly take it down due to its average Special Attack meaning you’ll take a few Psychics as you knock it out with either Acrobatics or Shadow Ball. Toxicroak is an easy target as you outspeed and Acrobatics is a certain OHKO. Although it will use Sucker Punch to do some damage before it goes down. Semistoad is a viable target due to Crobat’s good bulk, immunity to Earthquake and the toad’s average offensives means that Acrobatics will dispatch it with ease. If you have Giga Drain, easy OHKO. Drapion is really bulky and does not fall to Acrobatics easily and Night Slash will hurt, especially if it crits (it has Sniper, too). Eelektross is a massive danger thanks to STAB Thunderbolt to deal huge amounts of damage to your airborne ally, almost certainly a OHKO. Hydreigon is rather resilient to your attacks and Life Orb Dragon Rushes and Rock Slides will do a number on Crobat. Overall while the majority of Ghetsis’ Pokémon are manageable here, there is a certain duo that will ruin your day, even if the Haxdreigon is not as frustratingly hard to take out than in Black and White. * Hugh (Victory Road): Take down Emboar and the Grass-types with Acrobatics before they can respond. Samurott will take one hit and retaliate with Ice Beam or Mystic Water boosted STAB Surfs (which may also be enhanced by Torrent), both of these will do an insane amount of damage which means the samurai is better left for another Pokémon. The other elemental monkeys both have Rock Slide, but the lack of STAB and their fragility make them viable targets for Acrobatics (or Giga Drain in Simipour’s case, but Acrobatics will still hit harder unless you have a -Attack nature). The newcomer to the brawl, Bouffalant is rather bulky on the physical side and has a strong Attack stat. It also knows Wild Charge. Keep your distance. * Elite Four Shauntal (Pokémon League, Ghost-type): Crobat is a Poison-type. Everything Caitlin has (bar Musharna) carries STAB SE Psychic and has good Special Attack stats to back it up. Would you have Venusaur fight Sabrina if you had other options? (Musharna relies on the Yawn/Dream Eater combo as well as Charge Beam, still unadvisable.) * Elite Four Marshal (Pokémon League, Fighting-type): While this seems like a good idea on paper, there are a few reasons why Crobat just can’t go crazy here. Throh has good bulk and power as well as Rock Tomb to slow you down, although Acrobatics will devastate it. Sawk actually has Sturdy, meaning that it will live to use Rock Slide, which given Sawk’s high Attack stat will potentially end Crobat; you can tackle it if you previously set up entry hazards, though. Conkeldurr has Stone Edge to give you second thoughts, as it has good physical Defense. However, Acrobatics is a certain 2HKO and so is Stone Edge, unless it crits you should come out on top (do note that Stone Edge has a high critical hit ratio). Mienshao is fragile enough to go down with one Acrobatics and will not outspeed unless you’re underleveled. * Elite Four Grimsley (Pokémon League, Dark-type): Crobat will eat Liepard alive due to its first move always being Fake Out. Inner Focus means that Crobat cannot flinch. It also should be carrying X-Scissor. Krookodile is more of an issue as Intimidate prevents you from repeating the Bug type spam, either switch or, if you have it, use Giga Drain. Bisharp resists everything you can have but Heat Wave. If you have this, feel free to engage as this nice looking Pokémon does not have a good Special Defense stat, just be warned that Night Slash will hurt if it survives or Heat Wave misses. As for Scrafty, it’s weak to your Flying STAB and is really slow, so have fun. * Elite Four Caitlin (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): Shadow Ball is viable to deal decent damage to everything here. Cofagrigus is significantly more annoying than Ghetsis’ one because Will-O-Wisp is actually a problem for Crobat. It also knows Psychic, but again, Cofagrigus is not the most offensively oriented Pokémon there is. In terms of pure destructive power, Chandelure is extremely dangerous as an astonishing base 145 Special Attack means that Psychic and STAB Fire Blast will be doing obscene amounts of damage, if not flat out OHKO Crobat. It also has the bulk needed to withstand Acrobatics (complete with Flame Body to attempt to burn) and Shadow Ball before nuking the bat in response. Golurk only has Heavy Slam which could hurt, and STAB Iron Fist Shadow Punch. Do not underestimate the latter as the ghostly statue has the physical stat to make this threatening. However, it is slow, and its special bulk leaves much to be desired, so you can Shadow Ball away. Drifblim has a large health bar and decent Special Attack. It has Thunderbolt and Psychic to hit you with and avoid physical contact as Aftermath can pick off a weakened Crobat when Drifblim goes down. Shadow Ball should defeat it before Crobat gets overwhelmed, though. * Champion Iris (Pokémon League, Dragon-type): Remember that Hydreigon Ghetsis had in the prequels? Meet its cousin. Packing pretty much the same moveset (it is the exactly the same in challenge mode) expect using Flamethrower and Charge Beam over Focus and Fire Blast. Dragon Pulse will hurt due to Hydreigon’s impressive Special Attack and Charge Beam not only hits for super effective damage, but also can raise the Hydreigon’s Special Attack even higher. Use another Pokémon as Acrobatics will very likely not 2HKO. Archeops is really fast, has stupidly high attack and STAB Rock Slide to slaughter you with, and despite Crobat being faster and Defeatist nerfing your opponent's offensive stats, it still resists your best move and may take less than 50% damage from it, making it a very dangerous and unadvised gamble. Realistically, a bulky Water or Electric-type is better suited for this. Aggron hard walls the main set thanks to its incredible physical bulk and Steel typing. While the special attacks (namely Heat Wave, which however only deals neutral damage) do decent amounts of damage, the threat of Rock Slide (It has Rock Head, why is it not running Head Smash?) is enough to deter Crobat. Lapras is bulky, has STAB Ice Beam, also has Thunderbolt and Sing and neither Giga Drain nor Acrobatics will be taking it down in one hit. Druddigon carries Life Orb, Sheer Force-boosted Rock Slide to decimate Crobat after it tanks a hit. Haxorus is a problem for one reason: it has Dragon Dance. Taunt is useful here but if you don’t have it on Crobat, get something that can stand up to this monster on the field ASAP as it will get one boost even if you get a critical Acrobatics due to the Focus Sash making Dual Chop hurt like hell. Iris can and will spam Full Restores when this one is in the yellow HP range, meaning this powerhouse is not going down to a bat anytime soon. Alternatively, much like Drayden, resort to Haze. If you can sacrifice one of Crobat's moveslots for it, it will actually be very useful to get rid of Haxorus. * Post-Game: Logic, coverage, and no leaving Crobat against enemies it cannot handle. That's the recipe for victory. }} Moves Zubat will have Bite, Astonish, Supersonic and either Leech Life or Wing Attack when it is caught, with the later learned at level 15. Confuse Ray should replace Supersonic at level 19 as this is certain to hit unlikely the former's shaky 55% accuracy. After evolving into Golbat, the first move it gets is Swift which runs off its weaker Special Attack and will be outclassed by a certain TM and other moves. Do note that both Golbat and Crobat learn their moves at the same time. Level 28 brings Air Cutter which is utterly outperformed by the powerful Acrobatics at level 33. Do be careful as holding an item halves the power behind this attack. Mean Look is sketchy due to Crobat not truly being able to exploit it beyond Toxic at 38 while Poison Fang comes a tad late for a 50 base power move (level 42). Haze at level 47 is useful in certain situations but Crobat is normally better off attacking, finally Air Slash which is presented at level 52 is useable is you intend to let your Crobat be a special attacker but on mixed set is outperformed by Acrobatics, although it does allow for item carrying. Outside of its average natural movepool, the Zubat line learns a large number of useful TMs and move tutor moves. The first things that springs to mind here are Return which maxes at 102 power and the Fly HM for utility outside of battle. Beyond these, Venoshock will be your first Poison STAB and is extremely potent when combined with Toxic. Shadow Ball provides good Ghost coverage and Sludge Bomb trumps Venoshock if you don't carry status moves. X-Scissor lets you hit Dark Types for super effective damage while moves like Taunt, Sunny Day and Rain Dance allow the bat to provide team support. Looking at tutor moves, Cross Poison is Crobat's best physical Poison move with its high crit rate and poison chance. Zen Headbutt is only really useful against other Poison types as your Flying STAB hammers Fighting Types. Tailwind is a good option if you mainly have slower Pokémon as Crobat will speed them up, while Roost provides solid recovery, just be careful, if it could know Earthquake, don't use it, unless you want to be hit by a strong super effective move. Super Fang is incredible for catching wild Pokémon and Giga Drain, Heat Wave and Dark Pulse are all viable options on a mixed or special attacking set. Thief can be used if you want to get a certain item off a Pokémon but its main use (farming heart scales) is not possible here. Recommended movesets: ''Standard: Acrobatics, Cross Poison, X-Scissor / Fly, Return'' ''Mixed: Acrobatics / Air Slash, Sludge Bomb, Return, Giga Drain / Heat Wave / Shadow Ball / X-Scissor / Fly'' ''Special: Air Slash, Sludge Bomb, Heat Wave, Giga Drain / Shadow Ball / Dark Pulse'' Other Zubat's stats Golbat's stats Crobat's stats * What Nature do I want? Crobat is stupidly fast as it is and doesn't need a speed boost under any circumstance. What it will want is an offensive or defensive nature depending what its set is. The pure physical one will like Adamant or Brave while the Special attacker will like Jolly or Modest. In all fairness, a neutral nature works well here too, simply due to how versatile Crobat is. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? Zubat should be evolved by the time you fight Burgh, and if not, immediately afterwards. There is absolutely no reason to hold either Zubat or Golbat back as the stat boosts provided by each evolution are vital. Golbat should be evolved as soon as possible, although it will occur between Nimbasa and Mistralton on average. * How good is the Zubat line in a Nuzlocke? Zubat and Golbat are surprisingly useful in the early game and while Golbat's usefulness declines rapidly, evolution gives you an extremely fast jack of all trades that can support your team in any way you need it to. While it's not as bulky as Ferrothorn or Jellicent, nor as powerful as Chandelure and Haxorus, what Crobat does have is a solid balance in its stats, with the movepool to back it up. There’s a reason this line has the honour of being the most common Pokémon on final Nuzlocke teams (besides Zubat/Golbat being everywhere in the first four generations). * Weaknesses: Rock, Electric, Psychic, Ice * Resistances: Poison, Fighting (x0.25), Bug (x0.25), Grass (x0.25) * Immunities: Ground * Neutralities: Normal, Flying, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Water, Dragon, Dark Category:Black 2/White 2 Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses